1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for and a device for creating graphs with different layers, particularly, a method and device for creating icons with different layers and building blocks in a computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Advance computer technology has brought to human beings efficiency, quality and ease of management. Steps toward a computerized world are proceeding at an even faster pace. For example, rapid progress is being made with respect to the process of digitizing graphs and characters. The application of scanners has made graphic digitizing possible, thus promoting computerized publishing and the development of multimedia applications. The further development of time-saving, highly efficient graphic digitizing, and capacity-saving, low cost graphic storage for the highest quality graphs are goals that all of those skilled in the art strive for.
Currently, the production of motion pictures, cartoons and TV games, are still time and manpower consuming. Connecting pictures with minor changes to create a continuous motion picture requires icon design, color painting and quality control. In the design of Chinese characters of which about 10,000 are used daily, one finds that these words are created by combining similar patterns, for example, numbers of strokes, prefix, suffix or others. Conventionally, it is time consuming to write each typeface of a word, one by one, and then digitize it for processing by computer. Besides being time consuming, the digitized data storage in a computer requires lots of memory capacity and a high cost.
Regarding methods to generate high quality fonts, we can first refer to an article entitled "A Structured Design Methodology for Chinese Character Fonts", by K. J. Chen and K. Y. Cheng in proceedings published by an international conference (ICPT) in 1983, and then a paper published by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China in July 1984--"The Design of the Generation of Large Chinese Character Fonts in Personal Computers" by C. C. Hsieh, C. T. Chang and P. S. Chen, and a Republic of China Patent No. 38830--"Method and Device for the High Resolution Character Fonts Generation" granted to Mr. K. Y. Cheng and Mr. J. C. Young. These three papers, in spite of the different wordings in their titles, discussed the same subject: generation of Chinese character fonts in computer. There are numerous inventors and authors following them, and also researching on the same topic. Basically the existing methods can perform the following:
(1) Creation of various typefaces with different variations, such as large, small, bold, fine, tall and short fonts; PA1 (2) Occupation of approximately a constant memory for each character; and PA1 (3) Output as a point matrix or vector. PA1 (1) They can't perform two-dimensional variation in the typeface of each character, such as rotation or inverting at any angle, stretching or compressing of height of the typeface or the combination of any of the above, as shown in FIG. 5. PA1 (2) They can't perform three-dimensional variations and toning up or down of each character as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5--the conventional method can add a single color to each stroke only. PA1 3) Each character requires a considerable large memory for some complicated scripts such as the Chinese Cursive or Running handwriting styles, as well as graphs in layers, for the conventional method treats each character as a special symbol. However, in this invention, each character is treated as a regular icon, as shown in FIG. 9. PA1 (1) The conventional method can process the slanting typefaces either vertically or horizontally, including typefaces with outline and shadow. For slanting typefaces an additional output dot matrix has to be generated and process by external design, in addition, the slanting angle for the typeface is not controllable, if the slanting angle is changed, an additional set of typefaces has to be generated. The time frame to generate each set of typeface is approximately one year. If we have 10 sets of typeface and each set has 2 slanting angles, it would take 20 years to complete the design. The method according to the present invention does not require the generation of additional set of typeface because the slanting angle is controllable, including outline and shadow typefaces. PA1 (2) This invention use the matrix variation to create a two-dimensional change in the typefaces including the rotation, inverting at any angle, stretching, compressing or any of the above combination. The conventional method can only change the typeface inside a square frame but can not rotate at any angle, as shown in FIG. 5; PA1 (3) The conventional method in coloring can handle only one character at a time, this invention has the advantage of assigning color to a single stroke of a character. PA1 (4) The conventional method can only darken one character at a time. The method according to the present invention has a distinctive feature to create typefaces in a number of layers, as shown in FIG. 3. PA1 (5) The conventional method treats the Chinese Cursive or Running scripts as a chart of special symbol, therefore each word takes up a lot of memory. The method according to the present invention handles the Cursive and Running scripts as regular word, such as "Ming Style Chinese Character Fonts" as shown in FIG. 9.
Whatever the precise merits, features and advantages of the above cited references, none of them can fulfill the future need because of the following defects:
The present invention is a method and device for creating graphs with different layers to eliminate the above defects. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and device to generate a set of color graphs using computer technology, and such a method and device can be utilized to develop a set of artistic typefaces or graphs to resolve the drawbacks of the conventional method.
According to a particular feature of the present invention a set of graphs will be analyzed and classified in advance in the production of a comic book, (either color or black and white), cartoon pictures or a set of 10,000-word Chinese Running scripts. Icons are used as the building blocks in different layers to create different graphs. In the creation of the icon, this invention utilizes three variable parameters--color attributes, coordinates and the vector length to create icons with different or similar color, pattern or partial modification, display these icons as building blocks in different layers and color them to create a whole graph. Using the technique of variable parameters can save tedious works in coloring and picture production, cutting the length of time and cost in picture production, and enabling the variations in pictures and creates the case of motion picture production.
An additional feature of this invention is to use the codes and the variable parameters of the icons from the memory to describe a graph or picture. It is not necessary to store the data of the whole picture, therefore the data storage takes less memory. (Take the Chinese Running scripts, for example, the ratio of data for this method as compared to the pure vector method is 1:15). Based on this example, this invention is using a minimum physical size and lowest cost to store and produce the static picture or digitized images in motion. It is a new and practical method.
The following is a comparison on the typefaces of the Chinese characters between the method according to the present invention and the conventional method:
In accordance with the present invention, we eliminate the defects and difficulties of the prior art by providing a method to create the variable typefaces and graphs to satisfy the present and future demand.